[Foundation-l] Amicus Brief Filed in Golan v. Holder: Fighting for the Public Domain

[Alec Conroy]

> I imagine that having non-US GLAMs undersand that the foundation wants
> to be able to ignore what they regard as their more legitimate
> copyright claims will be really helpful.

It's not about ignoring legitimate copyright claims--  we can always
decide for ourselves what is a legitimate copyright claim for
WMF-hosted projects.  We can recognize claims even if we are not
required to do so under US law-- but we can't go the other way-- if
the US law says no, we can't host it.    If this case goes the wrong
way, it's possible that  the congress will force all US citizens and
organizations to recognize illegitimate copyright claims.

Remember that in the US law, copyright isn't a 'god-given-right' or
anything like free speech or right to property, or even right to
privacy-   Copyright isn't a 'right'-- it's just a government granted
monopoly intended exclusively to achieve a pragmatic end--
incentivizing creation.   The nation's judicial branch has a
legitimate question that's gone all the way to the supreme court--
precisely how should copyright laws be interpreted in the internet
age?

Of course the non-profits are right to share their analysis with the
US supreme court.   It's not as if they're actually deciding the
case-- they're just contributing to the discussion with the US Supreme
Court, sharing their best guess about what their lawyers believe the
correct answer is..

Alec